Gaza war: Palestinians displaced by war face a harsh winter

The beaches of Gaza are no longer for day trips. Tens of thousands of people now have to live on the coastline, forced to leave their homes during the war.

In recent days they have come under a new kind of assault: from winter seas battering their flimsy, makeshift dwellings.

“Nothing is left in the tent: not mattresses, bedding, bread, everything was taken. The sea took it,” says Mohammed al-Halabi, in Deir al-Balah.

“We rescued a two-month-old child who was dragged out to sea.”

Nearly all of Gaza’s 2.3 million population is now displaced and nine in ten of those living in shelters are in tents, the UN says.

With temperatures plummeting, many people have been falling sick. There have been floods of rainwater and sewage.

“My children’s feet, their heads—everything is freezing,” Shaima Issa tells the BBC in Khan Younis. “My daughter has a fever because of the cold. We’re essentially living on the streets, surrounded by strips of fabric. Everyone here is sick and coughing.”

“When it rains on us, we’re drenched,” adds her neighbour, Salwa Abu Nimer, crying. “The heavy rain floods us, and we don’t have a waterproof cover. The water seeps into the tent, we wear our clothes wet.”

“No flour, no food, no drink, no shelter,” she went on. “What is this life I’m living? I go to the ends of the earth just to feed my children.”